Blizzcon 2008: World of Warcraft: Arthas, Rise of the Lich King

We headed to BlizzCon 2008 in Anaheim, California to bring you everything about Wrath of the Lich King, Diablo III, Stracraft II. But we also went to gather info about Blizzard licensed products. I had the pleasure of meeting Christie Golden for first time (and Richard A. Knaak for the second time) at the Tokyopop booth on Hall B.

They were book signing and saluting lore fans who read their novels. Recently, I gathered a few questions from the community and pitched them to Christie Golden. I think some lore fans are gonna be quiet happy to learn these few bits of details about her upcoming:

WORLD OF WARCRAFT: ARTHAS, RISE OF THE LICH KING

1. Will we learn anything about Calia Menethil and her fate? Personally, I find her to have great potential in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and future stories. Calia could be a high ranking member of the argent dawn and marry Tirion Fordring for example. Be among the leaders sending us into Ice Crown and maybe help in taking her brother down. There is a lot of anger emotions, sense of justice for the death of their beloved father and kingdom that could be explored with this character.

Christie: Calia is a very interesting character indeed, and I agree, I think there’s a lot of potential with her. The story arc though will be concentrating on Arthas’s past, so while we’ll see a bit more of Calia in ARTHAS, it won’t be anything really startling.

2. Which aspects of the life of Arthas are you going to explore? This doesn’t look like a book that remains static in a particular time-frame. It seems like you’ll be progressing through various stages of his life.

Christie: We first meet Arthas in Chapter One as a ten-year-old prince. I’ll cover some incidents in his life as he’s growing up (don’t want to give too much away) that will hopefully shed some light on how grows into the man he will eventually become. And we’ll see quite a bit of Jaina, too.

3. Why was the book title changed to World of Warcraft: Arthas, The Rise of the Lich King?

Christie: We originally decided on ARTHAS, and that’s still the main title. “Rise of the Lich King” is a subtitle, and hopefully will help catch the eyes of people who are playing the expansion, “Wrath of the Lich King”. Just a little bit of sound marketing!

4. Are we gonna see that time when Arthas visited Quel’Thalas in his youth? He referenced this visit in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.

Christie: No … but we’ll have new takes on the very important time he visited Quel’Thalas. >.>

5. Are you going to expand the High Elven culture in this book in more detail than previous books?

Christie: I’ll definitely be touching on it, as it does affect the storyline and two very pivotal characters are elven.

6. According to World of Warcraft: Beyond the Dark Portal, Prince Kael’thas Sunstrider was one of the Six leaders of the Kirin Tor of Dalaran. I can see why the romance between Jaina and Kael could happen. She was student of Archmage Antonidas. Are we going to see some love interaction between them? Maybe some jealousy or rivalry between Arthas and Kael? Or Blackmail from Kael to Jaina?

Christie: *wicked grin* Oh, we’ll definitely see some Jaina/Kael/Arthas interaction. And it’s not going to be very pretty.

7. What other characters should we look forward to appear?

Christie: I hope that there will be many characters here that readers will enjoy seeing—Arthas’s family, Jaina, Antonidas, Kael, Sylvanas, Uther, Blackmoore, Taretha, and some new ones as well.

Thanks again for all your support!

Christie

We want your feedback. Share your comments. If some good questions show up, I won’t mind forwarding them for a follow up. Expect our Richard A. Knaak Q&A soon.